Rugby Players' Association

We'll start with Finn Theobald-Thomas, Leicester announcing today that he has been forced to retire from rugby with immediate effect on medical grounds.

33 appearances in Tigers colors, having joined, uh, from Worcester, um, the Rugby Players Association and Tigers saying they will support Finn as he begins the transition into retirement.

Uh, and, and it's, it's such a shame, isn't it, Ian, for, for a career, a career that looked like it had so much potential to, to have to end so early and on, on medical grounds too.

Well, you don't, you don't wanna overstate these things, 'cause tragedy is a, a, probably an overused word, but it's not too far out of kilter, is it? For a guy who, I think, when he, he got to the Tigers, he came from Gloucester to sort of join the academy side of things at that sort of area, and, and has, uh, pushed himself into that sort of third choice position.

Um, and there wasn't as much support around players in terms of transition and careers.

But once I did get some, and I was very grateful to the RPA, uh, the Rugby Players Association, it did help me.

Um, it was, it was a messy transition and working out what skills have I got from sport and how can I shift them into like, you know, a proper job or the real world.

It definitely was, um, a good sort of, I don't know, probably five or six-year phase of working out what I really wanted to lock in on, um, with lots of trial and error to get into what I'm doing now in like learning and development and experiential learning and leadership.

Yes, but tell us about the role that you've had in bringing that to the forefront because you've had a significant role in that.

Yeah, so I ended up writing a book I was approached, because I did a lot of stuff for the RPA, the Rugby Players Association, helping younger players think about their skill sets.

Because I went and shadowed the CEO and everything else, I was like, that's unusual.

So I got featured in lots of programs and magazines around.

I was really lucky to be a part of, because I played in the UK.

I'm a member of the Rugby Players Association over there.

So I joined Retired Players Weekend.

It was really interesting.